tintamar means A hideous or confused noise; an uproar; a racket. It carries an Arena rating of 1680, earned across 77 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tintamar ranks #528 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #1,075 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #1,250 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,319 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
tintamar is pronounced /ˌtɪntəˈmɑː(ɹ)/.
Why “tintamar” is a great word
TINTAMAR — [Noun] A hideous or confused noise; an uproar or racket of a particularly clanging and dissonant character. From French tintamarre, of obscure origin; possibly imitative of a clanging sound. Unlike "cacophony," which can describe a discordant mixture with aesthetic breadth, or "hubbub," which implies the busy commotion of a crowd, a tintamar is the raw, metallic substance of noise itself. It is the relentless clamor of a thousand pots dropped in a stone courtyard, the screech of rusted fire escapes in a gale, or the brain-rattling percussion of a failing factory machine—a sonic assault that feels less like an auditory event and more like a physical siege upon the quiet we mistakenly believe is our due.
Etymology
French tintamarre.
noun
- A hideous or confused noise; an uproar; a racket.e.g.“nor is there any Motion, or the least tintamar of Trouble in any part of the Country” — 1655, James Howell, “To my Brother, Dr. Howell”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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